As college enrollments soar, college graduation rates lag

Andrew Lightman

Monday

Aug 27, 2007 at 12:01 AMAug 27, 2007 at 1:51 AM

Until this spring, Dan Sterling was a student at Massasoit Community College. As of next week, he will be heading to Florida to work at clubs and basketball camps, with the prospect of continuing his higher education on the distant horizon.

The Holbrook resident's progress through higher education is typical nowadays. While more high schoolers than ever are enrolling in college, a disproportionate number are not staying in school, much less graduating.

“The school that I want to go to is down there (Florida),” he said, “and the price is a lot less expensive if I live down there.”

As the nation's more than 17 million undergraduates get ready for the start of fall classes, educators and researchers say it is now clear that most will not follow the traditional four-year path to a degree.

In fact, only about half will graduate in six years. The reasons most often cited: the rising cost of higher education, insufficient financial aid and inadequate preparation for college while in high school.

Nationwide, among first-time college students who started toward a bachelor's degree in 1998, 35 percent graduated within four years, and slightly more than half earned their degree within six, according to a 2006 National Center for Educational Statistics report.

Just 33 percent of students who enrolled in a two-year college in 2001 have graduated, the report said.

The national numbers are similar to those reported by officials at some local colleges:

As of fall 2006, 23 percent of students graduate after four years from Bridgewater State College; 51 percent within six years. At Curry College in Milton, 30 percent of undergraduates do not reach their second year, and fewer than half will graduate, figures that are “pretty consistent with the national averages,” said the school's communications director, Fran Gately. Stonehill College in Easton bucks the national averages with 82 percent of students graduating after four years and 85 percent after six years. At Massasoit Community College, a two-year school with campuses in Brockton and Canton, the average graduate completes his or her degree five or six years after initial enrollment.

“For our students who work, are balancing family and school, or are taking courses to determine the right educational or career path, achieving their goals may take longer than two years. In fact, the average Massasoit graduate completes their degree five or six years after initial enrollment,” Cronin said.

Statewide, 79 percent of high school graduates went on to a two- or four-year college. Towns often boast about their college enrollment statistics but are not required to track the success of their students after high school.

A commission created by U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings last year found that many high schools do not adequately prepare students for college. The report also faulted the rising cost of tuition and an inefficient financial aid system, which make college increasingly more unaffordable.

Stonehill College assistant dean of academic services Dick Grant attributes that school's success rate to keeping students informed on their status and offering summer courses and other ways of gaining needed credits.

“We tend to be able to work with them one on one to make sure they complete their degree in a reasonable period,” Grant said.

In Rockland, a blue-collar town where 82 percent of 2006 high school graduates went on to college, many discover they are unprepared for the financial challenges that await them on campus, said Doric Scarpelli, Rockland's interim assistant school superintendent and a longtime guidance counselor.

Students with insufficient course work heading into college may need to take remedial courses – paying more, in terms of tuition costs, spread out over the extra semesters they may need to graduate, Scarpelli said.

“Those that take an easy way out usually end up paying for it,” he said.

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